


The One with the Mermaids

by PurpleJesus



Category: Strange Magic (2015)
Genre: F/M, i love mermaids, i love strange magic, mermaid au, obviously not cannon, shipwrecked, this seems like a good idea
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-25
Packaged: 2018-09-23 10:07:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9651152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PurpleJesus/pseuds/PurpleJesus
Summary: Mermaid AU.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Working title. 
> 
> So I love mermaids, I washed Splash the other day, and then this AU was born. As my other story comes to a close, I needed a new one to keep me in the fandom :)

Bog was hallucinating. That was the only explanation. Eight days lost at sea, going on two without water and minimum food, combined with the heat… and it was getting to him. Because there was no way a tiny, cute blonde woman could be looking at him over the edge of his lifeboat. There was no land in sight. No other boats had passed him. There was just no way she could be there. It defied all rational laws.

He blinked and rubbed his eyes, but there she was. Friendly smile in place, her eyes the same brilliant blue of the sky over her head. She tilted her head, “Hi, I’m Dawn”

He was speechless. Her brow furrowed and she straightened her head, “Hola, me llamo Dawn?”

He slumped backward, muttering to himself, “Great, not only am I delirious but my delusions apparently speak Spanish, a language I don’t even know.”

The small blonde laughed, a light sound, “So you do speak English! What’s your name? What are you doing out here?”

Bog sighed, if his hallucinations insisted on bothering him, it’s not like he had any other forms of entertainment as he waited for death, he might as well talk to them. 

“My name is Bog” He waited for her to remark about his unusual name or make a funny face, but she just had that same curious look as she patiently waited for him to go on, so he did. Perhaps he’d get along better with made-up people over real ones, “I’m not out here by choice, I was on a ship that went down in the last storm.” 

She nodded, “Yea, it was a bad one.” She tilted her head again, “How come you aren’t dead yet?”

He snorted, surprised his delusion didn’t already know this, “Dumb luck. I had a survival cache stashed in this boat per my nagging mother's insistence. But my supplies are running low. Unless something changes soon I will be dead.”

She nodded, smile gone, a concerned expression on her face. “What do you need? To live?”

The side of his mouth quirked up, “Are you going to get it for me now? Very well. Water. Freshwater. And something to eat. But water is the most important thing. And if you could transport me to the nearest island while we’re at it.”

“Why do you need fresh water?”  
“Because drinking sea water will cause me to die of dehydration faster”  
Her brow furrowed again, “What is dehydration?”  
He pursed his lips, suddenly finding he was fighting a smile, “It’s when your body loses so much moisture it starts to shut down and dies”  
She shivered. Getting so dry you died? That was a very real fear of hers. It was what would happen if she ever got stranded on land. Another wave of sympathy hit her, drying out sounded like a terrible death.

She glanced up at the sky, then over toward one horizon, then back at him. “Okay, wait here” before disappearing beneath the waves.

He laughed to himself, “As if I have any other choice.” He settled back on the raft, using his shirt as a pillow. If he was done hallucinating, he might as well conserve his energy by sleeping. 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~

Dawn swam as quick as she could toward the island. She had no idea why she felt compelled to help the human, but she did. He was interesting. She had been watching him for days. He often talked to himself, berating his own stupidity. And speaking his regrets. She felt for him. She glanced around, suddenly nervous, making sure her sister wasn’t around. Marianne would not approve. She was overprotective to an annoying degree, and if she found out that Dawn had even seen a human, let alone was _helping and talking_ to one, she would blow her lid. Maybe tattle on her to Dad, and then she would have guards forced on her and be confined to the castle. 

And that would be the worst. She would go stir-crazy if she was confined to the castle. Nothing ever happened. That was why she was glad she found the human. He was interesting. It was something to do. A way for her to be useful. No one ever let her do anything. It was slowly driving her insane. 

She was brought out of her thoughts when she spotted what she was looking for and darted toward the ocean floor. The giant clam had died some time ago in this reef, but it’s shell was still here. It was going to rain later, and it would be perfect for collecting the rainwater. Humans were weird. She had no idea they needed fresh water over salt. She shivered again as she recalled his description of dehydration. 

She bit her lips as she strained to pull up the shell, it was more rooted to the seabed than she had realized. After some digging, and more tugging, she got it free. Now for the riskier part of her journey. She lugged the shell toward the island, stopping where she felt the water change near the mouth of the river. Freshwater. She rinsed the shell, then brought it toward the surface. She cautiously peeked up, and seeing no one, surfaced. The shell was much heavier out of the water. She laid it on the surface, empty side up, and began the swim back to the human. 

She kept glancing around, but there was no one around for miles. Submerging her head she carefully looked about, it would be just great for Marianne to catch her in the home stretch and stop her. But she was safe, under the waves were just as void of another being as above them. 

She saw his boat in the distance, and put more pep in her swimming. She was almost there. The sky groaned as the clouds darkened a bit. She was so close, in the knick of time too, it would start raining soon. She finally reached his boat and found him asleep. She hefted the shell over the edge by his feet, panting. She had never been more grateful for the buoyancy of water. She had no idea how humans did it, walking about all day, carrying things.

She glanced at the clouds again as she felt the pressure change, and on cue water started falling from the sky. She tugged the boat to see if she could move it in a current heading towards the island, maybe it would get there on its own and the human - Bog, she corrected herself - would be safe. But she wasn’t strong enough. She sighed, unsure who she could get to help her. It was too risky. 

Ok, water was taken care of. What had he said he needed more of? Food. Right. What did humans eat? She thought they ate fish. She could do that. It was easy to catch fish. She ducked back under the water.

 

~~~~~ 

Bog woke up when the first drops of water hit his face. He growled, the sky was mocking him. He didn’t have any way to catch the rainwater, so it was like a giant middle finger from the universe, dangling what he needed most before leaving him to die. But sleep would be beyond him until the rain passed, so he might as well sit up.

 

He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and pulled himself into a sitting position. When he opened them, he had to shut them again and he rubbed them harder, pressing the heels of his hands in his sockets hard. Somehow there was half a giant clamshell in the bottom of his raft. It was catching the rainwater. He laughed at the sheer impossibility. How did it get here? As if in answer his blonde delusion popped up out of the water again. She dropped two fish into the bottom of the boat and looked at him with a smile. He was stunned as they flopped around, one hitting one of his long legs. That touch sending a shock through him.

He closed his eyes and shook his head. Hallucinations didn’t get clam shells. Hallucinations didn’t catch fish. And hallucinations certainly didn’t know languages he had no knowledge of it. He needed to come to grips with that this was not a hallucination. Which begged to question, what the hell was she?


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the only story I've felt like working on lately. And also, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH RESEARCH WENT INTO THIS. 
> 
> I have so many sea survival tabs up it's ridiculous. And I now know more about knives than I ever thought I would. 
> 
> Still worth it though. 
> 
> This is definitely NOT a Bog/Dawn fic but I'm enjoying building their friendship before him and Marianne fall in love. Well meet each other, fight, then fall in love.

He rolled the question around in his head for long moments, as his body acted on pure instinct, survival training more ingrained than he realized. He drew his knife, grabbed a fish, and without ceremony, cut off it’s head. Carefully holding the bottom half of the fish upright, he set down his blade and grabbed the head, biting into one of the fish’s large eyes and sucking out the moisture. It was the best thing he’d ever tasted. He decided not to dwell on that fact. 

Once the eyes were drained, he set the head aside, and carefully sucked out the fluid around the spine of the fish, before repeating the process with the other one. There wasn’t enough water in the bottom of the clam shell yet, so he took his shirt and spread it out beside him, before starting to clean the fish properly. He was aware the blonde was watching him, her head cocked in curiosity, but her face showing no signs of disgust, just interest. She looked like she had about a million questions, but was unsure how to ask. 

She appeared to be younger than him, he’d guess early 20s. Assuming whatever she was she aged like a human. She peered closer, moving around the side of the boat to get a better look at what he was doing. She seemed confident that she was in no danger, despite his weapon. But he had no desire to hurt her as she was currently saving his life. Or prolonging his death, but he pushed that dark thought away. 

He carefully hung the pieces of fish in places where they would dry once the rain stopped, after popping a few small bites in his mouth. He needed to make them last, and he hadn’t eaten in so long he didn't want to make himself sick. He also didn’t know how long the blonde would hang around and help him. He couldn’t afford to speed up dehydration with vomiting. And he needed to buy some time before asking the strange woman what she was. How would he even begin to phrase that question?

He was saved from having to ask when she gave herself a push, boat rocking wildly as she half climbed aboard to pick up the sheath for his SOG Pup Seal knife. The sheath had a pocket with a black multitool and a fire starter stashed in it, but it was the multitool that had drawn her attention. 

He gulped when he got a look at her bottom half, eyes widening. Around where her belly button would be her skin transitioned into iridescent scales, they seemed to shimmer from pink to orange and back in the light. Peeking over the lip of her boat and down the sides of what would be her thighs had she been human were some short, flowing black fins, and as she curled it up and he saw that the tail - for there was no question that that is what it was - ended in a large, graceful pink fin, that reminded him of betta fish. 

She fell back once she had grabbed her prize, examining the sheath. Bog was still in shock, unable to process his thoughts. A mermaid. A mermaid was feeding him. A mermaid had gotten a giant clam shell from the bottom of the ocean floor. That she could easily reach because she was a mermaid. A mermaid had just climbed halfway into his boat, and was now opening up his multitool, with her elbows over the lip of the side holding herself in place, and gently pinching her fingers with the pliers. An actual mermaid. 

Maybe he was dead after all. 

Dawn turned her startling blue eyes on him, “What is the purpose of this? Why does it mimic a crab claw?” She put her finger through the opening and gently clamped down around it, giggling. And Bog shook his head hard. It was raining steadily now and his hair was plastered to his face, water dripping into his eyes. He could either take this new development in stride and humor her, which could help him survive, or he could freak out and scare her off, sealing his own fate. 

He chose survival. 

He checked the clam shell, and was relieved to see it was filling up with water as he answered her nonchalantly, “They are called pliers. They are a tool used to hold objects firmly, when your fingers won’t do. They are useful for bending and compressing various different materials.”

One by one she went through 23 tools on the device, having him describe them all to her, and their uses. The idea of screwdriver and a bottle opener were a little hard for her to understand, but he thought he did an okay job describing what they were for, and what the objects that they were used on did. Despite the strangeness of the situation, he was amused. She had a childlike wonder about her and he never had such an enthralled audience, especially over something as mundane as screws. 

By the end of it there was enough water in the shell to scoop some up to his sandpaper lips. His shirt was soaked and he wrung out the water it had absorbed into his mouth, before spreading it out again. He leaned back, content for the first time in days. The rain was soothing on his sun reddened skin, and the little water he was able to intake had eased the burning in his throat. The throbbing headache that had been present abated. And his hunger was no longer shredding his insides.

She was still looking in wonder at the tool, “I had no idea one instrument could do so many things! Humans are so clever! What metal is it? How is it made like this? Our tools are so simple.”

“The metal is a mix of different ones, called an alloy, so they are much stronger for being as small and delicate as they are. You need heat and patience to shape it, and put it together.” 

“Oh. It’s hard to forge things under the water. It has to be quick. And we’d never be able to mix metals together.”

Curiosity got the better of him, “Do mermaids not make many tools? Do you salvage them from ship wrecks or do you forge them all yourselves?” She looked at him and realization crossed her features. She slowly slipped the multi-tool back in the sheath and set it down carefully on the bottom of the boat, nudging it nearer to him. “I…ummm I’m sorry. I got carried away. I shouldn’t…” She bit her lip and looked away, gaze darting about quickly before coming back to him. She slipped off the side of his small vessel, drifting further to sea, “I should get going. I’m not supposed to talk to…well you.”

Bog felt his brows go up, but it made sense. Mermaids were supposed to be a myth, yet here he was, conversing with one. They must be highly secretive to have eluded humans for so long. But he didn’t want her to go, was afraid she wouldn’t come back. He tried to keep her talking, “Why aren’t you supposed to talk to me? I haven’t done anything.”

She shook her head, “Not you specifically, you as in a you a human.” She finished her sentence guiltily. 

“Why aren’t you supposed to talk to me?”

She shook her head, “I’m just not supposed to. It’s dangerous. Definitely not supposed to tell you things. I’m sorry.” She slowly moved away, and he was desperate to get her to stay, “Wait! Don’t go! I’ll die out here without your help!”

She bit her cheek, “I should never have interfered. I’m sorry.”

“Then why did you?” She edged nearer again despite her protests that she needed to leave. 

“Because I couldn’t watch you die. You seemed nice. And like you needed help…” She actually wrung her hands in distress. 

“All those things are still true! I promise I’m not a threat. Please don’t leave me here to die.” He ignored the twinge to his pride that said he was begging, but when it came down to life or death, he couldn’t afford pride. And he actually liked Dawn’s company. 

“If you have to go, please at least come back. Or help me to an island!” It had been winking in and out of his peripheral vision for awhile. He had thought it a mirage, but he suspected it was real. He hadn’t trusted it, thought it was a hallucination, much like he thought Dawn was at first. 

She shook her head, “I tried, I can’t budge your vessel.” At least this confirmed it was real and not his imagination. 

He cursed, it was the sea anchor, designed to keep the raft from floating too far from the wreckage. “I can fix that, I just need to cut away the anchor.”

“There’s no time. I’ll…I’ll try to come back. But I don’t know if I should, or if I’m able too….”

He scrambled over to the side of the raft nearest her, pleading with his eyes, “Just please come back. Help me to the island. Then you’ll never see me again, and if I ever find other humans I will never, ever tell them about you. I promise.”

Dawn looked at this odd human. She liked him, he was nice. And he was infinitely patient with her questions, something most people quickly tired of. He must have lost weight since being stuck on this raft, his bright blue eyes seemed impossibly large in his gaunt cheeks. She felt that swell of pity, and sadness at the thought of his dying punched her in the gut. She couldn’t leave him like this, no matter that he was a human. And she was already in it, might as well stay in it. 

She slowly nodded, “I will try to come back. I promise. And we can try your idea, of getting you to the island.”

Relief so profound made Bog slump against the side, “Thank you Dawn. Even if you don’t come back, thank you for everything.”

She had no idea why, but a human saying her name made a smile spread across her face, and surely someone who could express that much gratitude couldn’t be evil? “You’re welcome Bog.” And she ducked beneath the waves.

 

Bog lay back. He still didn’t have a lot of strength, and he felt sleep pulling at his eyes. He wrung the shirt into his mouth one last time before he let oblivion pull him under.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me what you think!
> 
> Tumblr: https://randomfandomtrashheap.tumblr.com


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so Cecaelia are the octopus people. Sunny is one. I've decided he's got some characteristics of an octopus. Like color change and venom. Also ink.

As Dawn swam toward the palace, her mind was racing. How was she going to do this? She had been away for too much time already, she knew there would be questions when she returned. It was unlike her to skip lessons. And the minute she didn’t show up they would have searched for her in her room. Not finding her there…she hoped no one over reacted, especially her sister. She was just outside the palace boundaries when she heard her name. Her annoyance flared, knowing the scolding she probably had in her near future. She wasn’t a child!

“DAWN!!!” and she winced. Of course it would be Marianne that found her, and not one of the guards. 

Her sister swam up to her, tail thrashing angrily. She had one hand on the sword on her hip, scanning around them, as if Dawn was being chased by some unknown enemy. Seeing none and reaching her sister, Marianne looked her over, “Are you hurt? Are you alright? Where were you? You know you can’t just take off like that! Without telling anyone! We were worried sick. Dad was worried sick! We thought you were taken! Or stranded somewhere!”

Dawn rolled her eyes, there was over protective and then there was her sister, who took it to an art form. “Marianne, I can only answer one question at a time. Seriously, you’re wigging out about nothing. I’m fine. I just….went out for a swim and lost track of time.” She let her annoyance seep into her tone.

Marianne pulled back and gave her a searching look, before sighing and pinching her nose, “Ok, you were with a boy. Who was it this time? And can you at least leave a note? Even Sunny didn’t know where you had gone and he’s been beside himself. Honestly Dawn, you need to keep your head out of the kelp.” She looked like she wanted to yank her hair out, “Kelp filled with boys.” She turned and headed back towards the castle, Dawn hurrying to keep up.

Dawn looked wistfully at her sister’s tail as she struggled to keep pace. While Dawn’s was floaty and an elegant fan, it was built for decoration, not speed. It was almost impossible to keep up with her sister. Marianne’s tail was a rich purple, that faded to almost black the further away from her torso it got. It disappeared in deep water, and was far longer and more serpentine than Dawns, with the lighter violet fins jagged, rather than soft and fanlike, like Dawns. The whole effect was “danger, leave me alone” where Dawn felt often hers was “look at me, admire,” and also, “I am helpless.” It was certainly how everyone treated her. Like a pretty ornament.

She grit her teeth and tried to put more speed into her strokes. She needed to start showing she was capable if she was ever going to be taken more seriously by anyone in the Kingdom. She allowed herself a small smile, remembering the human. He didn’t think she was helpless! On the contrary, he begged for her help, claiming she was the only one who _could_ help him. For the first time in a long time she felt competent, and not like a minnow. 

Marianne made an impatient sound, snapping Dawn out of her thoughts. Dawn thought back to the last thing she said when she was paying attention, and decided to take that excuse and go with it, knowing this was her best chance for a cover and it wasn’t far from the truth anyway. 

“I can’t help it. I just get so caught up in the excitement of it all.” She sighed dreamily, “Don’t you ever just let yourself get lost in the moment?”

Marianne rolled her eyes at her sister, finally slowing down now that they were on the Palace turf. Her anger melted away and she felt a little guilty for her brutal pace, knowing her little sister had a hard time keeping up. 

Marianne gave her sister a tightlipped smile, “No, never. One of us has to stay in reality to watch out for danger.”

It was Dawn’s turn to roll her eyes, huffing out, “Did it ever occur to you I’m not completely helpless?” 

Marianne raised a brow at her, but declined to comment. She could sense Dawn was in a rare mood, and she did not want to provoke a quarrel with the normally cheerful merwoman. 

Dawn wasn’t finished, “Eventually you are all going to have to stop treating me like a child.” Her tone held a defiant edge.

Marianne cocked her head, sensing this was somehow different than her sister’s normal rants, and she did not want Dawn to feel like she was dismissing her, “We aren’t trying to treat you like a child, it’s just….” She stopped and turned slightly, her long tail coiling tightly like it did when she was feeling vulnerable. Dawn stopped and gave her an expectant look, arms folded across her chest, noting her sister’s discomfort. It was her biggest tell, and it always amused Dawn how no one else had picked up on it, rather taking it as a sign of aggression, like a tightly wound coil about to spring. 

When Marianne didn’t speak Dawn snorted, starting to swim toward the castle again. Her movement broke the spell and Marianne grabbed her arm, “Dawn…It’s just that we all love you so much. If something happened to you…” She gulped, her normally hard expression gone, and the stark expression finally softening Dawn’s ire.

“Marianne, you can’t protect me forever. And you have other things to worry about. I’ll be fine, I can take care of myself. And you go out by yourself all the time!”

Marianne sighed, her expression hardening once more and she ran her hands through her hair, fingers getting tangled in the short locks, tugging on it sharply, and casting an annoyed look upward at her offending hair, “I know that. Don’t you think I know that? I just…know what’s out there and I don’t want you to meet it one day alone. I train really hard to be prepared in case I meet it. You don’t have my training. Can you at least take a guard with you when you slip off? At the very least, Sunny?” She finally managed to yank her hand free.

They made their way inside the Palace doors by now, Dawn eager to put distance between herself and Marianne. She could only take so much lecturing, and she knew her dad would probably pick up where Marianne left off, and then Sunny after him. 

“I’ll do my best.” 

Marianne let out a frustrated sound, “How did you manage to sneak off anyway?”

Dawn gave her a small salute and she ducked down a hallway before she could hear Marianne’s reply. She could feel her frowning after her, but she seemed to let it go, much to Dawn’s relief. 

Her luck continued to be crap as she swam practically right into her father, as he was making his way to the throne room. He gave her much the same speech as Marianne, but peppered in with how she _was_ helpless and needed constant watching. Unable to stomach it, she turned on the fake tears, causing her father to immediately stop, hug her, apologized for being so hard on her and retreat. Once he was out of sight she stopped, and continued to her room. 

When she was safely behind the closed doors, she flopped on her bed, throwing her arm over her eyes. What a day. She let her thoughts drift back to the human, wondering if she would be able to sneak back to help him. He ate fish, maybe he also ate other stuff that merpeople ate? Could she bring him food? He seemed to need to drink water, but only fresh. Could she find some other vessel to hold some in?

She sat up suddenly, the ship wrecks! They had all sorts of human items in them! Surely they would have things he needed! She chewed her lip, fingers dancing along her tail in thought. The ship wrecks were notoriously dangerous. The nearest ship graveyard was home to a sea serpent. 

But the human _needed_ her. He might die if she didn’t interfere. And if she could get the materials needed from the shipyard she could prove once and for all that she could take care of herself. Then everyone would have to admit they were wrong, she _wasn’t_ helpless.

She glanced around the room, but what to take? And how to sneak off again? She had a feeling everyone would be doubly watching for her after today’s reactions. This would require some planning.

Dawn laid back down. Her earlier method of escape would likely not work again. Originally her tutor had been showing her some seaweed or another on the outskirts of the palace grounds when they had stopped for lunch. The old merwoman fell asleep, and seeing a rare chance, Dawn took off to go exploring on her own. Alone the ocean was a different place, and she was enchanted by what she saw. She had decided to surface just to take a look, to abate her curiosity. She thought after the storm the coast would be clear, as most humans tended to avoid this part of the world this time of year, due to the fierce pop-up squalls that were so common. She had not intended to surface so close to the human, she did not even know he was there. His boat was so small, she hadn’t noticed it. It was only after she heard him she realized she was not alone. Initially she had ducked back down, under the waves, but the tone of his shouts drew her out. 

She silently slipped along the side of his boat, and listened. He did not sound scary or dangerous, he sounded desperate and lost. It made her heart ache.

For the next few days she had used the same trick with her tutor, slipping off to observe the human, always able to sneak back unnoticed. It was when he sounded like he was giving up that she felt compelled to talk to him, to help. At this point she felt she knew him, and was confident he wouldn’t hurt her. Her hunch had been correct. And how fascinating he was! And his tool! He was so patient explaining it to her, never once becoming annoyed at her never ending questions, she had forgotten he was a human, and supposed to be an enemy. 

But she had been gone far too long, her tutor waking and discovering her absence. She had immediately raised the alarm, and started off the panicked search for the missing princess. Dawn shook her head, she needed to figure out another way to get out. She was positive her tutor hadn’t mentioned exactly _how_ she had slipped away, not wanting to admit fault in case something did happen to Dawn, but she was also confident that even if she was allowed to keep the same tutor, a guard would now be assigned to them. 

 

She laid her arm over her eyes again, blocking out the soft light from bioluminescence algae coating her walls. So deeply lost in thought, she did not notice when her door opened slightly, and it was only when she felt a tapping on her shoulder that she realized she was not alone. She sat up, arms flailing, shrieking, startling the small cecaelia off her bed. She clapped a hand over her mouth when she realized it was Sunny, swimming quickly to the door to make sure no one heard and would burst in, swords blazing to defend her. 

She was just about there when the door did indeed fly open, a guard that must have been stationed outside holding his triton, perched to throw. When he saw Dawn unharmed and Sunny struggling to untangle his tentacles to right himself, his smile under his helmet was both amused and apologetic, “Sorry Princess, I thought you knew Steward Sunny was on his way, or else I would have announced him. He’s here to discuss your new guard detail.”

At least if she was given a guard, it was one with a brain in his skull. She liked Delphin. It was fairly widely known that Dawn and Sunny were thick as thieves, but on occasion some of the merfolk were…discouraging about how close they were. It had taken a fair few tantrums and actual threats from her sister, who also adored Sunny, to straighten it out, but some of the guards were persistent in their disapproval. 

Old prejudices died hard she supposed, even though it had been a millennia since the Cecaelia and the Merfolk were at war, and that the Cecaelia were invaluable for survival, as they were the backbone of their society. She pushed those thoughts away, she had more pressing matters to worry over than some backwater thinking that wasn’t even an issue at the moment. 

“It’s ok Delphin, I was merely lost in thought and startled. Thank you for your quick reaction time.” She was nothing if not polite, but she gave a pointed look toward the door. Delphin, bless him, took the hint, bowed and made his way back to the hall, closing the door behind him. 

She turned just as Sunny managed to right himself, tentacles finally working together instead of against each other. She giggled, the absurdity of the situation momentarily making her forget that he was likely there to lecture her too. She remembered when he drew himself up, standing on almost the ends of his tentacles so they were approximately the same height from the floor, and he marched over to her. 

She scowled at him and crossed her arms, “Don’t you start on me too. I’ve already heard it from Marianne, and then from dad, I do _not_ need a lecture from my best friend about how I’m a helpless little calf that should know better.”

Sunny wilted a little under her uncharacteristic fierce look, but soldiered on, “Dawn, I know. It’s just…sneaking away without even telling me? **ME?** You know I wouldn’t have tried to stop you, not really. But by not even telling me, what if something **did** happen? Then _no one_ would have known where to even begin to look!” He tugged on his hair, in an eerily similar way that Marianne had earlier and Dawn wondered if this was her effect on people. Unlike Marianne’s, Sunny’s hair stuck straight up no matter what, and his hand came away easily. 

For the first time since being back, Dawn felt guilty. He was right. Sunny only made token efforts to talk her out of her schemes, but overall he was just concerned with her safety. As the Steward to the Castle, a position he inherited abruptly when his own father passed away suddenly, no one expected Sunny to rise to the occasion as well as he did, but most did not know he had been raised alongside the Princesses, given the same formal education. Despite his young age, he was adept at his job, even better than his father had been in corralling the two, since both Dawn and Marianne considered him a dear friend, and were much more likely to heed him than they ever were his predecessor. Of course this was a double edged blade, as they were also more likely to tell him where to shove it when they thought he was being a bore. 

And as her best friend, Dawn knew he was probably beside himself, even more so than the others because he was positive _had_ Dawn snuck off, she would have told him. More than the others he was convinced she had been snatched by some creature or someone. 

Dawn grabbed his hands with her own, squeezing slightly, “Sunny, I’m sorry. I just saw my opportunity and I took it. For once in my life I liked having time that was just for me. But you have a point, it was unsafe. I should have at least mentioned what area I was slipping away too. I’ll try and keep that in mind for the future.”

Sunny softened immediately, slightly squeezing her fingers back. “Thank you, that’s all I ask.” He paused, “So where were you.” It was somehow both a question and not. 

Dawn bit her lip, “Well, that’s the thing……” she careful disentangled her fingers from his and moved back, “…I don’t want to tell you.”

She swore his eye twitched, “What do you mean you don’t want to tell me?”

She gave him a frank look, “You aren’t going to like it, you’ll probably try to stop me, and you _really_ won’t like what comes next.”

His eye twitched for sure this time, “Now you have to tell me.” 

“I really don’t think that’s what’s best for your health. You can barely keep a hold of your coloring now, telling you might cause you to lose it”

“Dawn.”

“Sunny.”

_”Dawn”_

_”Sunny”_

“Dawn. We both know whatever it is, you are going to need my help. _Especially_ if you don’t want to tell me. And my coloring is fine. I have complete control, it’s been years since I changed involuntarily!”

She threw up her hands in frustration, because he was right, she did need his help, “Fine. If you must know…” she stopped, looking around in suspicion, mainly toward her door, before swimming closer to him, “I have to go to the ship graveyard.” At her words Sunny froze, even his hair seemed to resist the slight current running through the room and he immediately lost all pigment. After several slow moments he turned his head, brown eyes wide and strange in the paleness of his face, “Why in the seven seas would you need to go there?”

Dawn bit her lip, giving his arm a pointed look, “I need to get some things off the sunken ships.”

_”And what is so important off the ships that you want to risk your life for???”_ He hissed, ignoring her point that he had changed color. 

Dawn winced as his whisper shouting rose an octave, “This is the part you’re really not going to like.”

**”What do you mean there is a worse part?!?!** His color was slowly returning, but going a deep red, rather than his normal handsome brown.

She twisted her fingers, “What are the odds that you will let me tell you the second part of the plan _after_ the first part has been successful? Because realistically if we die, at least you’ll die not knowing the end game.”

**”DAWN HALIA NERIDA YOU TELL ME RIGHT NOW OR SO HELP ME I WILL GO GET YOUR SISTER!”**

She gave him a baleful look, “Don’t you threaten me! Or I’ll give you the silent treatment like you’ve never heard!”

“Answer the question!” His voice was a squeak at this point. 

She threw up her hands, “I need to find supplies to help a human! Happy now?!” If she thought him losing all pigment was bad, it was nothing to him going grey, and fainting. Which was not very dramatic underwater, but she rushed forward anyway. She tucked him into her arms and put him on her bed.

She lightly slapped his cheeks, “Sunny! Sunny! _Sunny!_ Would you stop being dramatic? I need you up and alert so we can figure this out!”

His eyes fluttered open, coloring staying the same sour grey. He blinked at her hard several times, “I’m being dramatic? You just told me you want to _risk our lives for a human_ and **I’m being dramatic**?? Is this where you’ve been sneaking off to? To visit a **human?** ” He actually looked hurt.

Dawn figured she owed him the full explanation if she was going to ask him to help her with this, and they’d come this far…. “Yes. He’s shipwrecked. Near death. He needs my help or he’s going to die!” She couldn’t bear the wounded look on his face, “Sunny please! I need to do this! Do you realize this is the first time in my life that someone actually needs me?” She held up a hand as he opened his mouth to protest, “No. I mean _needs_ me. As in will die without me. Doesn’t like me for my company, doesn’t like me for my singing, doesn’t like me for my charm, actually _needs needs_ me. This is the first time I haven’t been useless. I can actually do something! And if he dies now, I’ll never forgive myself. Or you for stopping me.”

Sunny was rubbing his temples as the grey slowly faded to light brown, “Do you seriously want to risk everything for a human? A human? Like the two legged butchers that kill us? Capture us? Want to study us in their terrible dens? Fish us? Eat us? What is this human to you anyway?”

She put her hands on her hips, giving him a challenging look, “He is my friend.”

Sunny sighed, recognizing that tone, and that look. Dawn would do anything for someone she cared about, and for whatever reason she had decided this human fell into that category. It hurt him on a deep level. He always figured she would end up with a merman, but to lose her to an actual human…he sighed. He knew at this point he could help her and keep her safe, or he could tell on her and lose her forever. He chose the path that kept her in his life, in whatever capacity he could get, that led to her happiness. 

“Fine, fine. We’ll go to the shipyard.”

Dawn squealed and clapped her hands, hugging Sunny, “Thank you thank you thank you!”

Sunny hugged her back, “And maybe if we die at the shipyard, we never have to see the stinking human.”

Dawn pulled back, laughing, “We’re not going to die. And you’ll get to meet him! He’s so nice Sunny.”

He gave her a wry look, “I’m sure he is, they all are when they need something.”

She gave him a look, but brushed her hands businesslike, “Ok, so now that that’s over, how are we going to sneak out of this prison?”

He arched a brow at her, his coloring a deep brown again, “You mean your plush castle room? Where you are a princess of the sea? That prison?”

She stuck out her tongue at him, glad to see he was returning to normal, “Don’t start with me. We both know I don’t sneeze twice without Marianne hearing about it. Now do you have an idea on how we can smuggle me out of here?”

He tapped his chin, “How long until you want to head out on this suicide mission?”

She furrowed her brows, “As soon as we can. He has some supplies, but it’s been days since he’s been stranded and I don’t think that’s good for humans. He mentioned something called dehydration? Sunny, it means drying out to death.” She turned wide unblinking eyes on him, “Did you know that could happen to humans? I thought that was just a sea thing.”

He shook his head, “No I didn’t know that. But I’ll keep it in mind if I ever need to kill a human. Now, if we need to get out of her the sooner the better…” He glanced around the room. 

“Well first I think we should discuss what we are going to do when we get there. Like what if it goes belly up? How will we protect ourselves?” He bit his cheek, hoping she didn’t catch on.

Dawn waved her hand dismissively, “Well, being part octopus you can change color and squeeze through any opening. So you can just go all camouflage then strike with your venom. And me, I’ll just shriek.”

Sunny cocked his head, “Shriek?”

Dawn nodded, “Yea, shriek. It’s something I found out I could do when I was exploring on my own. Before I found the human.” She gave him a contrite look, “My tail actually got caught on some coral, and well I sorta bled a little. Which caused a shark to target me.”

Sunny covered his face in his hands, “A shark. A shark targeted you. While you were out to meet a human. So before the human could kill you, the shark almost did. Dawn. Dawn. You are going to kill me.” His voice was resigned and muffled from underneath his hands. 

She soldiered on, “So I screamed. And hit an octave I’ve never hit before and well, hard to describe what happened, but it like…shot? blew? It was like a focused beam of sound and it blasted the shark away from me. Like a wave had hit it. One minute it was swimming right at me, the next, sideways and far away. Poor thing look dazed, but did not come at me again.”

 

He was giving her an incredulous look, “Are you telling me you’re a sound bender? Are you part siren?”

Dawn shrugged, “What’s soundbending?”

Sunny looked torn between annoyed and impressed, “Didn’t you pay attention at all to our history tutor? Soundbending is a rare gift in merfolk. It’s the ability to manipulate sound. Queen…Queen…” he waved his arms, trying to think of the answer, before snapping his fingers, “Queen Mazu! She had the gift. Used it to end the human/merfolk war. Lured their ships close, then sang the Death Song. Killed them all, then decreed secrecy, allowing mermaids to retreat and sink into legend.”

Dawn grabbed her throat, “I don’t want to accidentally kill someone with my voice! Are you sure?”  
“You knocked away a shark with a scream. Do you really think I’m wrong?”

“No…you did get good marks in history. This is just a whole lot to take in at once. Can I do anything else with this sound bending?”

He tapped his chin again, “Well, you may be able to charm speak, that could be useful. Think you can figure it out in the next two hours or do you want to figure out another plan for sneaking out of the castle? One that doesn’t depend on you mastering an ability you just found out you had.”

“Well there’s no reason to be snarky. So far I just know I can hurt with it, I don’t want to go practicing on the guards and kill someone. That’s the opposite of sneaking, especially with how loud the scream was.”

He tapped his tentacles in a slow wave like he did when he was deeply thinking, “Ok, I think I have an idea. Let’s go to the kitchen.”

She gave him a confused look, “the kitchen?”

Sunny nodded, “Yea, the kitchen. You’re hungry after a long day of being lost in the ocean from where you accidentally wandered off, and want a snack.” He was trying to tell her something with his eyes, flickering them toward the door and giving her a meaningful look.

Her mouth formed a small “oh” as she realized what he was trying to tell her. They had been quiet for far too long, her new guard was likely getting curious. “A snack it is then, I am hungry.”

She darted to the door, quickly throwing it open. She was unsurprised to see Delphin startle, shuffling back away from the door. She pursed her lips, then swept by him, as Sunny caught up and kept pace, quiet as his mind whirled.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, feedback and comments are welcome!


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